By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
Dr Manassah Daniel Jatau, Deputy Governor of Gombe State, has emphasised that education plays a crucial role in empowering individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to recognise and capitalise on business opportunities, even in challenging economic environments.
According to Jatau, education equips people with the ideas and expertise needed for development.
Speaking as a Keynote Speaker at the Gombe State University during the graduation ceremony of Masters in Business Administration, on Saturday, said acquiring education in this recent time when the world is passing through troubled economy should help in opening the eyes of the people to business opportunities and to handle things more differently.
He said, “Acquiring education is key to identifying, and exploring business opportunities in troubled economies.”
He advised the graduating students to learn from those who made it in their business carriers so that they too can succeed.
The Deputy Governor who spoke on the topic ‘Businesses in a troubled economy‘, pointed out that if people are going to school to be employed after graduation then nobody will want to go to school since there are many unemployed graduates all over places.
While defining ‘a troubled economy’ the deputy governor said “Experience, events, and happenings globally manifest that we are in a troubled world economy. Our dear Nigeria is no exception. With insecurity, shortage of goods and services, inexplicable rise in prices of things that has made calculation of the rate of inflation impossible, collapsing infrastructure, falling standard of living,very uncomfortable unemployment, no honest person can quarrel with me for referring to the Nigerian economy as “troubled economy.”
Quoting his position as reported in one of his books( Jatau 2021) on the famous evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin the deputy governor elucidated that “the organisms that best adapted to the environment is more likely to survive and reproduce”, many fallaciously applied it to living organisms only. The truth is, it applies to all human endeavours. So first and foremost, for our businesses to be sustained, whether in ‘troubled’ of ‘comfortable’ economy, the desire determination and self-will to adapt to the environment is crucial and most important. Adaptability once decided upon must consider numerous factors. This is because sustainability itself involve relating with planning, funding, strategic management, risk taking etc.”
He stressed that the entrepreneur must be shrewd, prudent, effective transparent and accountable when operating business and dealing with customers while also upholding the critical virtues of efficient leadership.
He highlighted the role of good knowledge of the business and business environment, human resource utilisation, and appreciating the community where business is cited through corporate social responsibility as well as build a trust and insure the business against any unforseen eventuality.
“Let me observe that to survive your businesses, it must be relevant, responsive, resilient, adaptive and above all work with feedback mechanism which is the process of using information about past performance to adjust future actions,” he added.
Dr Jatau explained that there is no business without a challenge but it is the ability to overcome challenges that differentiate an effective leader from non effective one.
The Chairman, Gombe Local Government Council Barrister Sani A.A. Haruna who is also the ALGON Chairman Gombe State, appreciated the deputy governor for attending the programme and also commended the deputy governor’s role in the human capital development programme of the government which has made a lot of impact to the people in the state.
The Dean Faculty of Arts and Social Science Professor Babangida Ibrahim, congratulated the graduands for successful completion of their studies, informing them that business opportunities abound mostly in trouble economies and urged them to make optimum use of the opportunities to better their lives.
Jatau, Emir of Gombe, Dr Abubakar Shehu Abubakar III represented by Alhaji Ahmed Walama the Sarkin Malaman Gombe were presented with awards of honour alongside the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Kashere, Professor Umar Pate, and his GSU counterpart, Professor Aliyu Elnafaty, who was represented by Mr Jephaniah Shehu, among others.
